Mini-Tele - Part 1

Bigger isn't always better!

Like most people that have both children and guitars - I fight a battle.

I really want my son to be interested in music (and being interested in guitars would be A-Okay with me) but I also want my guitars to survive the experience.  I tried early on to demystify the instruments themselves by having him touch, hold, and play some of the more 'durable' items in my collection.  I figured the cheap and cheery Epiphone mandolin would be a better introduction than the near vintage PRS.  Fingers crossed - it seems to have worked.  He's interested in electrics and careful with the acoustics.  You can't ask for much more than that from a 7-year-old.

So, when my son asked me if I would make him a guitar - I had to pause.

Of course, I want to build him a guitar!  I've been waiting for this moment for over 7 years.  I can't wait until he's 16 and he can tell me exactly what pickups he wants in the thing.  But for now - he's 7 and may very well play it once and never touch it again.  So, how do I proceed...?

The thing about guitars for kids is that – you can’t just put a Les Paul in a 7-year-old’s hand and say, “Good Luck!”  It weighs more than he does and it’s almost as tall as he is.  Usually, guitar stores will sell ¾ sized instruments for kids taking up the 6-string but I did the math on that and it would still be pretty big on him. 

Judge me by my size, do you?

About 6 months prior to this post I saw a short scale neck for sale on GFS' factory blowout page.  It was less than $25 and a short enough scale (20.5 inches) that he might be able to play it.  So, I bought it and showed it to him.  He was excited.   I asked him what color he wanted it.  "Gold!" was his only answer.  ...like for all of it.  Gold body, gold hardware, gold headstock.

Don't stop believin', kid.  Gold it is.

So, here I am building a starter guitar for my son.  I'm going low budget on this one as it may end up being a wall hanger but let's see what kind of mess we can make, eh?

I thought you'd be... bigger...

I started with a Poplar body.  Mainly because I could get a slab of wood in the right size.  If I'm careful with the cuts - I might get four bodies out of this plank - and that'll work out to about $20 a body - not too shabby.  If for no other reason it'll be great for working on prototype body shapes - even if this is the only body that gets turned into a full guitar.  (Editor’s note:  if I do this again – I’ll use Basswood.  Poplar was fantastic to work with but it’s a bit too heavy for little guys).

I found a full-size image online for a Telecaster shape and shrunk it down in Photoshop.  I went with the Tele-style - again to keep it simple and to maybe finish the build before he goes to High School.  Tele's don't need a bunch of shaping like a Strat or a Les Paul.  And since I've already built one - it "should" be easier to build.

We'll see how that goes. (Narrator voice-over: it didn’t go how he planned).

Shrinkage

As you would expect if you've been reading this blog for more than 5 minutes.  There's tracing, cutting, and sanding in my immediate future.

Rough & Not-So-Ready

 As you can see from the full-sized template under it - the Mini-Tele body is probably 25% to 35% percent smaller than a normal telecaster body.  I forgot to note how much I reduced the original image file prior to printing it out.  I also made some free-hand changes to the design to better work with the slab of wood I had (read: I made a mistake with my math and had to fudge it a bit).

Ye Olde Schoole

 I also decided to build this guitar in the same way that I built my first one - with a jig-saw rather than a router.  There was no good reason for this - it just felt like a good idea.

"Say hello to my little friend!"

 To fix all those lovely rough edges I used a belt/disc sander.  Seriously, where was this thing when I did this the first time?  These are super-handy if you are a sloppy builder (like me).

There's a little bit of rock in there.

 And here's where I left off after day #1.  Sadly, I didn't record all the steps so the next posts may jump around a bit.